Tag: succulent

What happened to Pretty Little Cactus?

Well, let’s talk about it! I started my blog in June about succulent and cactus gardening. It’s a passion of mine, and I began getting a following on Instagram from my pictures featuring my efforts. They seriously are the coolest, most attractive plants! However, I am not just a blogger, I am a writer. Writing about just one topic can be very confining to the creative mind. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve been all over the place in terms of my ideas, interests, loves, and hobbies, and my blog started to reflect that. It’s pretty much been evolving and growing ever since! I started to realize that as much as I adore “Pretty Little Cactus”, the name was becoming more and more irrelevant based on my wrioting topics.

Welcome, Elle at Home!

Most of my posts are centered around my home life with my family (and my plants) because let’s face it, I’m a homebody! Elle has been my secret alter ego for years, which is the letter L(acey) in name form, as well as French for the word “She”. For those of you who know me personally, you know that J’aime la langue française! I was awake around 2 am one morning due to a random bought of insomnia, and the name just came to me. While “Pretty Little Cactus” will always be special in my heart, “Elle at Home” is ME, and it just fit.

I felt that if I want to have this creative outlet to write and grow with, it was time to make a little change. Blogging has brought me so much happiness for these past six months, and I can’t wait to look back in six more months to see what my year of blogging looks like as a whole. Oh and by the way, a note to future me: stop forgetting to take your vitamins! Current me is sick right now because I’ve been slacking on my essential oils and supplements. Anywho, happy reading friends. Thank you so much for sticking around on this journey with me!

How many times must I repeat the cycle?

Buy houseplants, grow houseplants, kill houseplants. Over and over! My friends and family come to my home and always give me love for my houseplants and and say “Wow you have a green thumb!”. No y’all…I kill almost as many as I grow. Fellow gardeners, who is with me on this? Sometimes it feels like I’ve done everything right, I’ve gotten the conditions perfect and my happy little plant is just growing away, and then I come home one day and BAM! Dead.

This poor plant died a long, slow death.

Every single houseplant in this photo is dead. 🙁

The hardest part about having houseplants is getting the water and sunlight ratios right for each plant. My house is so angular that the sunlight that does come in is very spotty in the rooms that I want plants in; my dining room, living room, and kitchen. This has meant doing lots of reading on which plants thrive in shade, semi-shade, or indirect sunlight. So far, I’ve managed to kill an awful lot of houseplants just by getting this information wrong. But hey, that’s how we learn, right? By making mistakes and not repeating them!

Snake Plant is looking good! And somehow, my succulent and cactus are doing good too! For now….

The easiest plant by far to keep alive and well in most conditions is the Pothos. This baby will thrive and grow in sun, shade, dry or wet, and will clean your air the entire time. It’s my go to house plant fo sho. The second one is the Snake Plant or Mother in Law Plant. This is another air-cleaning houseplant that you basically cannot kill…unless you’re a plant serial killer, in which case carry on. This plant will thrive in most lights and doesn’t require a ton of water which is great because when I travel for work, it’s basically the Sahara Desert at my house.

…and my husband does not water plants.

My last thriving success is my Rubber Plant! Did I mention how much I love air-cleaning houseplants? More about this in my next post. I’ve had my Rubber Plant for about a year now, and she’s just as pretty as the day I got her! These plants can grow pretty large if you let them, but my experience so far has been just fine.

Rubber Plant looking all green and pretty…despite my children!

Not mentioned above? The DOZENS of other houseplants that I’ve murdered in my home, may they rest in peace. To name a few, Boston Fern, Peace Lily, Maidenhair Fern, every orchid I’ve ever owned, and SO. MANY. SUCCULENTS! Given my love for Succulents, you can imagine how devastated I am when one of them dies. Tears!

Anywho, I hope this post gives some of you peace of mind when it comes to your supposed “brown thumb”. Keep on trying! If you’re diligent with taking care of your plants and making sure to learn about their optimal growing conditions then you can absolutely have houseplants. Take it from me, the girl who kills plants on the reg, if I can keep at least SOME plants alive and happy in my home, then so can you. I have faith!